Books about Owner builder from Amazon.com

Writer Charles Long has a well-earned reputation as one of North America's self-sufficiency experts. More than 20 years ago, he and his wife, Elizabeth, fled city life and conventional employment for the country, and have flourished there ever since. Now back by popular demand Long's The Stonebuilder's Primer is a highly readable account of the couple's successful effort to build "a house that will outlast anything made of wood."

Developing a compromise method of stone construction that is both simpler and truer to the stonemason's art than the popular slipform method, the Longs built an aesthetically satisfying home of stone on a limited budget and no previous construction experience. In this classic how-to book, the author describes the complete building process in clear, easy-to-follow steps and, in so doing, dispels the myth of difficulty that surrounds stone construction.

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Price: $11.17 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The best available guide to saving money on a home construction project, The Owner-Builder Book shows you how to contract your new home, remodel, or addition at phenomenal savings. Contains a step-by-step description of the process, including how to find and hire good subcontractors, how to get a construction loan, and how to estimate costs and choose features for your project. Includes 85 planning steps and 100 new construction bargain strategies to save you thousands. Includes contracts, agreements, budget and schedule forms and worksheets. Super-index provides 1,500 search terms for total utility. Winner of the National Association of Home and Workshop Writers Silver Hammer Award for Books.

"...16 easy to read chapters with lots of charts, lists and examples...More practical advice..." Nancy Cook-Senn, The Shawnee News-Star

"...this is the book which will tell you how to design and build your own home just the way you want it. It also tells you how to save thousands of dollars in the process...You can also save up to 50% of the cost of a house by becoming an owner-builder...goes through the stages of how to plan, planning, how to buy, developing a network for purchasing your materials, how to get bids, what to look for in bids on different areas, how to supervise your sub contractors, etc...seems to leave very few, if any, stones unturned." Curtis Rivers, Vero Beach Press Journal

"Assuming you have the same costs that a general contractor will have, you will save the profit (more than 10 percent average) and the overhead (two to three times the profit) paid to a general...The Owner-Builder Book discusses just how this can be done." Ask the Experts, Country's Best Log Homes

"If you don't want to sorry, follow the process outlined by Mark Smith in his book, The Owner-Builder Book." Builders Showcase, Northwest Herald

"...covers every aspect of the building process, including planning, scheduling, working with subcontractors, financing, building permits, etc....has, perhaps for the first time, demystified the home-building process for the layman. Consider this to be a textbook." Prince William Region Home Focus

"...highlights techniques for materials shopping (what he calls "commando shopping") and planning your home room-by-room to maximize savings." Home & Real Estate Weekly, Daily Times-Call

"This new book gives a step-by-step approach to building your own home and saving up to 50 percent on construction costs. Chapters show how to beat contractor pricing tactics, how to deal with paperwork (contracts, permits, and legal and insurance protection), how to manage home building project on a daily basis, and how to avoid common owner-builder mistakes." The Henry Herald

"Great practical little book filled with tips to save money when building a home. If you want to take on the project yourself, it's good to know the tricks of the trade first. You'll learn to manage bureaucratic paperwork, how to get subs on your side, and even become privy to "commando" shopping techniques. The Smiths explain how to benefit from new tax laws and how to prepare yourself to get loan approval." Simple Living Quarterly

"If you ever have thought of building your own home, The Owner-Builder Book is for you because it is a step-by-step guide for the amateur and covers all aspects of building a home." Robb Northrup, Kitchener-Waterloo Record

"When it comes to building your dream home, sweat equity a.k.a. doing it yourself, can help economize. But you don't need to swing a hammer to nail substantial savings. In The Owner-Builder Book Mark Smith leads home-owners through a step-by-step guide of planning, scheduling and financing a custom built house." Michelle Mahfouri, American Press

"The 16-chapter book takes [you] from putting a materials list together and putting out bids to subcontractors to shopping for bargains and close-outs on framing lumber, fixtures, concrete and appliances. It also discusses how to avoid first-time mistakes." Kansas City Star

"...guides you through...building...and saving considerable dollars that will build [your] wealth without the [typical] risk..." Rocky Mountain News

"What are the secrets to...save money on the construction of your home? This book tells all." Kansas City Daily News-Press.
Price: $13.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Only 43% of construction firms are still in business after four years. Make sure your company thrives with essential and very readable guidance from a pro with 25 years success. Find out what it takes to build all aspects of a business that s profitable, enjoyable, and enduring. Includes: Contract Terms & Conditions (to include and to avoid); How to Make Sure You re Paid What You're Owed; Dos and Don'ts of Mechanics Liens; How to Select, Hire, and Keep Golden Employees; How to Choose Accountants, Lawyers & Insurance Agents; How to Target, Check out, Land, & Retain Profitable Customers; Effective Marketing Even the Smallest Contractor Can Afford; Opportunities & Requirements of Retail Construction; and much more ideas that will pay off right away & throughout your career. Whether you re a contractor, a key employee, a subcontractor, a student, or a facility executive, you ll find many ideas you can immediately add to your management and leadership toolbox. Adopting even a single one of them will pay dividends now and throughout your career..
Price: $32.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"This work is significant It is the first to include a method of assessing structural strength in the context of the modern marine environment " --Commander M. C. Cruder, U.S. Coast Guard

Acclaimed author and naval architect Dave Gerr created this unique system of easy-to-use scantling rules and rules-of-thumb for calculating the necessary dimensions, or scantlings, of hulls, decks, and other boat parts, whether built of fiberglass, wood, wood-epoxy composite, steel, or aluminum. In addition to the rules themselves, The Elements of Boat Strength offers their context: an in-depth, plain-English discussion of boatbuilding materials, methods, and practices that will guide you through all aspects of boat construction.

Now you can avoid wading through dense technical engineering manuals or tackling advanced mathematics. The Elements of Boat Strength has all the formulas, tables, illustrations, and charts you need to judge how heavy each piece of your boat should be in order to last and be safe. With this book, an inexpensive scientific calculator, and a pad of paper, you'll be able to design and specify all the components necessary to build a sound, long-lasting, rugged vessel.

What reviewers have said about Dave Gerr's books:

Propeller Handbook

"By far the best book available on the subject."--Sailing

"The best layman's guide we've ever read."--Practical Sailor

Dave Gerr and International Marine made a complicated topic understandable and put it into a handbook that is easy to use."--WoodenBoat

"Without doubt the definitive reference for selecting, installing, and understanding boat propellers."--Royal Navy Sailing Association Journal

The Nature of Boats

"If you are not nautically obsessed before reading this book, you will most certainly be afterward."--Sailing

Fascinating potpourri of information about today's boats, modern and traditional."--WoodenBoat.
Price: $20.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

SMALL BARN PLANS FOR OWNER-BUILDERS is a both a book of barn plans and an owner-builder guide to managing your own barn building project in just four easy steps.

First step...learn how to design your own barn or adapt one of the 12 barn plans in the book.

Step 2...Estimate the cost of your barn and get competitive bids and save thousands of dollars.

Step 3...Learn how to manage your building project like a pro to save time and money. The book includes checklists and schedules to make it easy.

Last step...learn how to successfully work with subcontractors and suppliers to save up to 20%!

SMALL BARN PLANS FOR OWNER-BUILDERS includes professional construction plans, including floor plans, elevations, cross-sections, floor framing plans, roof framing plans,structural details and a cupola plan for 12 popular barn plans.

There are six gable-roofed barn plans, ranging from a 300 square foot "backyard barn" to a 1500 square foot six stall horse barn. Most have full lofts. The book also includes 4 gambrel-roofed barns, from 384 to 864 square feet, with multi-purpose floor plans and full second-story lofts. Two monitor-roofed barns are also included. The smaller is 864 square feet, plus a 400 square foot loft. The larger has 1296 square feet, plus a 600 square foot loft for storage or living space. Many of these barns have been built as affordable "barnhouses"..
Price: $18.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book is a survey of small houses from early settler cabins to the tiny house movement of today. The houses include frontier shelters, squatter houses, Cracker houses, farmhouses, bandboxes, shotguns, bungalows, and tiny houses. The book shows how these houses were built and served the special needs of their owner-builders. Each chapter starts by showing the house in the context of its construction, the kind of resources that were available to its owners, and how their construction was shaped by both their purpose and historical situation. Many of the insights of these home-builders can be used in small house construction today. These insights include the use of decks and outdoor spaces, separation of spaces, and simple framing techniques that are visible in the construction models. These models help readers get a feel for what it might be like to live in a small space and ways traditional builders maximized the efficiency and comfort of their homes. The book s CD includes a model of every house in the book as well as contextual plans and elevations, three-dimensional details of the structure, and the layout of each house. Readers can explore the house s construction, deconstruct its pieces, modify the spaces, and adapt them to test their own ideas. All our books are written as graphic narratives in a comic style. Every book mixes layers of visual information with construction models, short video tours, and tutorials on how the models were built and organized..
Price: $29.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

3D Construction Modeling is a user friendly book that walks you through the construction process for a small house. It is not only practical but the only guide that shows you step-by-step how to build a construction model using SketchUp 4.0. The book and CD-ROM feature a trial version of the modeling software, video tutorials and real-world construction details in ten easy graphic lessons. This unique narrative is designed to introduce novices to key features of construction modeling as well as inform advanced users of the advantages of preconstruction visualization. 3D Construction Modeling uses an innovative, simple comic format to bring busy professionals and students up to speed and enhance productivity in a very short period of time..
Price: $26.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Only 43 per cent of U.S. construction firms remain in business after four years. Why? Inadequate management, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. This is surprising because most construction firms are formed by ambitious construction project managers, executives and tradesmen who have excelled at what they have been doing. But as experienced as these entrepreneurs may be, they are not likely prepared to take on the full range of responsibilities forced on them in managing the business of construction in its entirety.

While this business failure rate and its causes are based on U.S. experience, available data from a number of other industrialized countries shows they are similar.

This book describes in detail what the business side of the construction equation requires of the construction firm owner. The contractor who quickly learns these requirements can identify and avoid or manage around the pitfalls that cause the high failure rate in our industry and put his or her construction firm on a level playing field with the best-run companies in the business. The detailed duties of the owner, whether in the U.S., U.K., Australia or Canada, are a common theme throughout the book.

The author, Nick Ganaway, speaks peer-to-peer, and the book is sprinkled with supporting examples from his own experience. He is immersed in the industry and this book is "based on the things I've learned, used, and refined as a light-commercial general contractor in the course of starting and operating my own construction firm for 25 years." The contractor doing $5 million or $50 million or more in annual sales or the equivalent amount in other countries, or the entrepreneur who is just starting up, can use the tried and proven material in this book to build a business that is profitable, enjoyable, and enduring.

Additionally, the book devotes a chapter to specializing in chain-store construction.

* Learn what you need to succeed in the construction sector
* How to target, land and retain profitable customers
* Avoid the pitfalls of running your own construction business.
Price: $44.37 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Companion to the best available guide to saving money on a home construction project, The Owner-Builder Book: How You Can Save More than $100,000 in the Construction of your Custom Home. The Special Reports volume shows you how to contract your new home, remodel, or addition at phenomenal savings. Contains a step-by-step description of each component of the process, from finding land to building green. Includes interviews with representative subcontractors and hundreds of suggestions from owner-builders on each topic of interest in building or remodeling your home. Illustrated with owner-builder photos. Richly colored sidebars provide links to thousands of Forum threads, and template forms for contracts, agreements, budget and schedule forms and worksheets. Super-index provides over 7,000 search terms for total utility..
Price: $29.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]